Bücher von Theerapat Ungsuchaval

NGOs and Civil Society in Thailand critically examines the relationships of civil society to nongovernmental organisations in Thailand, and examines the 'NGOisation' of civil society, how NGOs are funded and governed, and in what way the NGOs has been shaped to work with the funder.NGOisation is a phenomenon by which the funded organisations are impelled to transform suit their funder as reliable partners. Focusing on Thailand, an Asian country where NGOs have been heavily relied on the public sector for funding, the book analyses the relations between NGOs and their significant funder, Thailand Health Promotion Foundation (THPF), one of the biggest and most influential players in the NGO sector. As the NGO funded organisations are impelled to transform and adapt to become more professionalised, institutionalised, bureaucratised, and depoliticised to suit their funder as reliable partners, their characteristics and relations with the state are complex and interactive. Engaging with key stakeholders in the field of NGO and public governance in Thailand, the book demonstrates how THPF changed the NGO landscape, integrating them and innovatively coordinating non-state initiatives into public governance system.A novel contribution to the study of NGOs and the state, the book also addresses NGO transformation, politics, and governance. It will be of interest to academics working on Asian Politics, civil society, public policy and public management.¿

Critical realism (CR) is commonly known for its ostensible and practicable capacity to successfully combine and reconcile a realist ontology with a relativist/constructivist epistemology. CR adapts an ontological realist position which stratifies the world into the real, the actual, and the empirical and suggests that although the world does exist out there, what we experience are subjected to our interpretation. This double recognition is relatively novel in social science. Besides, CR is a post-positivist methodological orientation. Hence, it can perform serious and useful works in social research, especially in terms of conceptualization and conduct of qualitative research. CR also allows one to avoid ¿intellectualist fallacy¿ by regarding allegedly contradicted things, such as structure and agency, in terms of dialectical, promoting an ¿and-and¿ approach rather than an ¿either-or¿ one. The aim of this work is not to give an exhaustive account of CR but rather to highlight some of its key philosophy and methodological implications. It is hoped that this work can be an alternative, concise (and maybe amatuer) introduction to CR and its research implications.